Innocence Or Idiocy?

Another somewhat tangential post I’m afraid, which doesn’t directly mention Wales and only briefly notes transport, but I’m trying to get lots of posts out this week. I’m doing this to make up for months of nothing and hopefully promote the events this coming weekend which will call on our governments to take serious action to curb climate change.

For years I’ve considered the Conservative party guilty. Of what I’m not quite sure, of ‘being evil’ isn’t quite correct, but my opinion of them leans towards that. Together with the Labour party, I have wondered if they have a secret policy of environmental suicide, intent on causing a mass extinction of most, if not all, life on earth. Ok, that’s a bit extreme, but the way both parties refuse to rule out airport expansion (the frontrunner being Heathrow) suggest that, at best, they don’t care.

But now I wonder if I have been mistaken, the Tories might be guilty but they might instead be innocent, or idiots. This revelation came when I read that prime minister David Cameron has complained to Oxfordshire county council regarding their plans to cut frontline services. I don’t recall whether that story mentioned transport, but the county is reported to be planning to scrap all their subsidised bus services. It turns out then, that Mr Cameron perhaps isn’t the heartless soul I believed him to be, and George Monbiot reports that people care more than we tend to think so maybe Mr Cameron is a nice guy after all. If he is though, he is either an idiot for believing councils can find all the necessary savings through efficiency measures, has been horrendously poorly advised/educated by others or he doesn’t really care and thinks that by complaining to the council he can fool the public into thinking he cares. Councils might have been able to do so initially, but after five years of cuts there can’t be many efficiency savings left to be had, and frontline services now face the axe.

A quote from George Monbiot’s article (linked above): “Billions of decent people tut and shake their heads as the world burns, immobilised by the conviction that no one else cares.” People do care, so let’s get out there at the weekend and demand action to curb climate change. The UK’s Prime Minister is either guilty, innocent (but poorly informed) or an idiot, let’s hope he’s innocent and that we can inform him.